TikTok Lite’s Rewards program is getting the boot in the EU as the company feels continuing with the initiative could bring about serious consequences.
The decision to axe the program comes as reports hinted at how it was in violation of the Digital Services Act and that means a bigger headache in the form of regulatory issues.
The program for rewards was first rolled out in countries such as France and Spain where it was significantly stripped down to ensure it would bypass any regulatory issues.
For those who might not be aware, the rollout provides users with the chance to earn more points for watching online content, liking videos, following their favorite content creators, and also inviting their pals to this platform. In return, they could swap the points they earned for vouchers on Amazon.
As per reports, the EU didn’t find the rewards program fruitful, adding how it could give rise to addictive actions amongst underage users and that gave way to a new investigation on this front. Officials also hinted at infringing the DSA.
Today, the Digital Services Act forces all tech giants including popular social media platform owners to roll out risk assessments to the EU before they can launch features that impact their users. But in this case, TikTok failed to do so before it put its Rewards program up for public reach, giving rise to serious scrutiny in the EU.
The app did undergo a period of temporary shutdown of its program after this investigation started. And today, it’s opting to get rid of it entirely. In the same way, the app also rolled out a new promise to the EU that will not circumvent the process of withdrawal by rolling out another such initiative.
Therefore, this allowed the EU to close the investigation against the company’s Lite app version. Meanwhile, another press release had the EU mentioning that this isn’t the first time that it accepted commitments from the online app under the Digital Services Act.
As per the EU’s head for the internal market, the brain time of minor Europeans shouldn’t be considered as a currency for apps. This is why they felt the complete withdrawal of the Lite Rewards program from TikTok was needed before it turned out to be addictive and had drastic consequences.
The app is still not completely clear from the EU yet. It will still be monitored very closely to see how compliant it can be in terms of commitments and also if any breach does arise, it would certainly give rise to hefty fines.
Meanwhile, the EU is still carrying out an investigation on whether or not TikTok has broken the Digital Services Act rules that were designed to protect minors and ensure transparent ads are rolled out in their direction so that they know exactly what they’re getting into.
Image: DIW-Aigen
Read next: New Court Ruling Claims Google’s Partnership With Apple And Others To Be The Default Search Engine Violates Antitrust Law
The decision to axe the program comes as reports hinted at how it was in violation of the Digital Services Act and that means a bigger headache in the form of regulatory issues.
The program for rewards was first rolled out in countries such as France and Spain where it was significantly stripped down to ensure it would bypass any regulatory issues.
For those who might not be aware, the rollout provides users with the chance to earn more points for watching online content, liking videos, following their favorite content creators, and also inviting their pals to this platform. In return, they could swap the points they earned for vouchers on Amazon.
As per reports, the EU didn’t find the rewards program fruitful, adding how it could give rise to addictive actions amongst underage users and that gave way to a new investigation on this front. Officials also hinted at infringing the DSA.
Today, the Digital Services Act forces all tech giants including popular social media platform owners to roll out risk assessments to the EU before they can launch features that impact their users. But in this case, TikTok failed to do so before it put its Rewards program up for public reach, giving rise to serious scrutiny in the EU.
The app did undergo a period of temporary shutdown of its program after this investigation started. And today, it’s opting to get rid of it entirely. In the same way, the app also rolled out a new promise to the EU that will not circumvent the process of withdrawal by rolling out another such initiative.
Therefore, this allowed the EU to close the investigation against the company’s Lite app version. Meanwhile, another press release had the EU mentioning that this isn’t the first time that it accepted commitments from the online app under the Digital Services Act.
As per the EU’s head for the internal market, the brain time of minor Europeans shouldn’t be considered as a currency for apps. This is why they felt the complete withdrawal of the Lite Rewards program from TikTok was needed before it turned out to be addictive and had drastic consequences.
The app is still not completely clear from the EU yet. It will still be monitored very closely to see how compliant it can be in terms of commitments and also if any breach does arise, it would certainly give rise to hefty fines.
Meanwhile, the EU is still carrying out an investigation on whether or not TikTok has broken the Digital Services Act rules that were designed to protect minors and ensure transparent ads are rolled out in their direction so that they know exactly what they’re getting into.
Read next: New Court Ruling Claims Google’s Partnership With Apple And Others To Be The Default Search Engine Violates Antitrust Law
